Jonathan Taylor has the support of his teammates amid his messy battle with Colts

Since the Indianapolis Colts returned for training camp, Jonathan Taylor’s relationship with the franchise has deteriorated by the day. The running back is currently on the PUP list, and also was hoping to get a new contract since there’s only one year remaining on his rookie deal. However, Indianapolis has made it clear that they have no plans to make an offer until next offseason.

This has led to a very disgruntled Taylor, weird social media activity by Taylor and his agent, and also a trade request. While Taylor hasn’t been on the field practicing, he has been in attendance every day. Every time he’s been captured on camera, Taylor seems to have a hood on and also a frown.

With these bad vibes floating around a young team with a new head coach and rookie quarterback, many have argued that Taylor’s situation is an unnecessary dark cloud for the franchise and that Taylor himself is developing into somewhat of a cancerous teammate that it outcasting himself. However, his teammates are making it clear that’s not the case.

While not many veterans have been vocal about what Taylor is going through, a couple of the team’s leaders have spoken up, and they’re making it clear that Taylor has heir support. One of those teammates was linebacker Zaire Franklin, who called out a fan for criticizing Taylor.

Colts players aren’t turning their backs on Jonathan Taylor

Franklin made it clear, he sees Taylor as a man doing what he has to do to provide for his family, and that doesn’t make him a bad person. Defensive tackle DeForest Buckner also spoke out in support of Taylor. In a recent interview with NFL Network, Buckner was asked does a situation like that become a storyline in the locker room at all. The veteran defensive tackle replied, “not really,” explaining how the team is handling it.

"Not really, you can’t let little things like that distract what the team’s got going on. Obviously, everybody got their own personal things going on, and JT, obviously, he’s going through negotiations… that’s his thing. I understand the business side of things, it’s something that they gotta figure out. The rest of the guys, we gotta prepare; with or without him. Obviously, we hope that everything gets resolved soon so we can have JT back out here."

- DeForest Buckner on Jonathan Taylor

Buckner and Franklin are both team captains, so their support is important. It also makes sense that Taylor’s teammates will support him during this time. They obviously would love to have him on the field, but they understand what it means to fight for a contract. They’ve either been there before, or know that they could eventually be there. So all they can do is support their teammate and hope that he remains their teammate, and is back on the field sooner rather than later.

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